Improvement in machines for cutting screws on rails and posts of bedsteads



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J. PARSONS OTVEN, OF NORTVALK, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR CUTTING SCREWS 0N RAILS AND POSTS 0F BEDSTEADS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 8,806, dated March 16, 1852.

To (@ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J. PARSONS OWEN, of Norwalk, in the county of Enron and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements on the Machine for Cutting ScrewThreads on Bedstead Rails and Posts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a plan showing a rail under operation. Fig.2 is a longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan showing a post under operation, the parts of the machine being broken off where a repetition would otherwise occur. Fig.4 is adetached longitudinalview of one of the reversible cutter-heads connected with the screw-spindle. Fig. 5 is a transverse section taken through the line 0 0, Fig. 1. Fig.

6 is a perspective view of the mortise cutterhead, and Fig. 7 a similar view of the tenon cutter-head.

The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several figures.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is the bed of the machine, provided longitudinally and centrally on its under face with a tongue or projecting slip a, which is intended to fit in a joiners vise or otherwise serve to hold and steady the machine when in operation.

B is the frame or head-stock, secured to the bed and forming bearings for the spindle or shaft 0, also carrying the half-nuts or boxes I) b and c c. The spindle O, which lies longitudinally with the machine, is made to revolve by means of the crank or handle D. It also has a motion in direction of its length, either way, through means of right and left handed screw threads (1 d either one of which operates at a time through the halfnuts or boxes referred to, the boxes I) b fitting the thread (1 and the boxes 0 c the thread (1 each pair of boxes being provided with a female thread corresponding to the male thread they fit, and each pair of boxes being made immovable as regards motion in direction of the length of the spindle, but movable trans- Verselythereof and working in slides, so that either pair may be packed up by the wedges e e to gear with the thread they fit or he relieved from contact, according to the motion in a longitudinal direction required to give the spindle, which (where it forms hearings in the head-stock) is made near either end v the spindle, whereby the snug itself lies eccentric thereto, as seen more particularly in Fig. 2. To the snug g, bya bolt passing therethrough, (in a linetransversely with the length of the spindle,) is attached either of the re versible cutter-heads E or F, the construction and distinct uses of which are as follows:

The angular cutter-head E is formed of arms lying at or about a right angle toward one another, the union of the arms forming a surface which fits against the outer side of the snug gthat is, the side not in aline with the center of the spindle O, as seen more clearly in Fig. 2. A bolt 71, provided with a nut at its one end, (for tightening up,) passes through the snug and cutter-head thus situated. Projecting from the extremity of either arm, or rather fitted thereto so that they may be're moved for repair, is a suitably-beveled V or other shaped cutter 2', which (either cutter on either arm) has its cutting-edge so directed, and is so eccentrically placed to the center line of the spindle when the arm to which the said cutter is attached lies horizontally, that as the spindle O revolves in an appropriate direction (the suitable boxes I) 'b or no bein g thrown into gear with their respective-threads d or (P) a thread or screw will becut upon the tenon of the bedstead-rail, as represented in Figs. 1 and 2, where H is the rail, having the tenon on one of its ends under operation, the rail resting in a bearing-piece I at one end of the machine and in a guide-loop. J near the cut, in which it is held and fixed by the clampscrew j. The piece Iand loop J are secured to the bed A by wedges from underneath, so that any other sized piece and loop may be substituted according to the diameter of the rail being operated on. The one tenon of the rail thus having had the screw upon itsay a right-hand threadthe rail is reversed and the opposite tenon (projecting from the other end) submitted to the same operation, as already described; but in order to cut a lefthand thread thereon (which is necessary for the rails turning in one direction to screw up into the posts when fitting them together) the arm of the cutter-head before described as lying horizontally is turned on its bolt 71. to the position before occupied by the other arm at a right angle, or thereabout, with the spindle, which other or second arm being now brought to operate with its cutter directed and shaped so as to out, say, the necessary left-hand thread, the one pair of boxes I) b or c a, before in gear with their respective screws (1 or (P, are relieved from contact by simply withdrawingthe wedges e e and sliding back the said half-nuts or boxes. The other pair, before relieved, are then thrown into gear with their thread, (on the spindle,) which, being of appropriate and opposite direction to the ad.- joiningthread, gives the required direction to the screw upon the second tenon.

This so far is descriptive of the mannerof cutting' the screw-threads upon the tenons of therails as affected by the reversible cutterhead E, the construction and operation of which having been so minutely explained, and the form and action of the cutter-headF for/cuttingthe threads in the mortises or apertures of I the bedstead-posts being mainly similar, it will only be necessary to point out the material differences and peculiarities thereof. The cutter-head F is alike reversible and has its cutters Z0 70 near the extremitiesof the arms properly directed and shaped forcutting, the one a right and the other a left handed thread. The arms of the cutterhead are somewhat different to E, being made cylindrical and of or about the same diameter as the mortise in the post before the thread is cut, the cutters 7c is projecting from the sidesof the arms at or near the extremities, and communicating by opening (either cutter) from, the cutting-edge with the interiorv of the cylindrical body of each arm, (made ho1low,) so that the chips formed by the cut will free themselves by working or passing into the body of the arm. secured to the arms byscrews for the purpose of removal, as before specified with the tenonscrew cutters. The arm of the cutter-head F, lying horizontal, Figs. 3 and 4, and which forms the cutting-arm, is not eccentric, as was the case with the cutting-arm of the cuttering removed when the rail is having cut the Thecutters 7.; 7c are screw upon its tenons, in the same manner as that the loop J is displaced when the post is being operated upon. The cutter-head F, supplying the place of the cutter-head E, as described, for cutting the screw in the mortise, is, as before observed, reversible and similarly opera-ted, so that the necessary right and left handed threads in the different mortises are cut as either arm of the cutter-head is placed horizontal and the required change specified made in the disposition of the halfnuts or boxes fitting the screws 011 the spindle C.

The cutter-head F is reduced at the union of its arms, so as form a flat surface in aline with the center of the arms, whereby and through the eccentricity of the snug g the cutting-arm is, as already specified, madeto lie centrally with the spindle, the interior surface of the reduced portion of the cutterhead'sitting against that face of thesnugg which is .in a line with the center of the spindle, so that the eccentricity of the snug 9 serves to give both cutter-heads their proper position. The cutters 7o 70 being removable, they may be used for attachment to larger or smaller diameters of cutter-head arms whose size will be dependent upon'the diametersof the mortises; but a slight deviation in. the diameters of the tenons on the rail does not necessarily require a similar alteration or change in the cutter-head operatingthem, as a washer or washers may be introduced between the snug g and cutter-head, thereby varying the eccentricity or distance from the spindle of the cutters. The flange f,'it will be noticed, serves for what may be termed the radial arm ?of either cutter-head to fall back against.

It may here further be. observed, in conclusion, that the tenons of the rails and mortises of the posts are (before submitting them to the machine described for cutting the screw-threads thereon) similarly prepared as at present-that is, the tenons-turned and mortises bored; but in addition to boringthe mortise of a diameter equal to the inner diameter of the thread, I purpose, by anger or otherwise, countersinking for a short depth at the-mouth a larger aperture or openingv equal in diameter to the outerdiameter of the thread, so that in screwing up the railsand posts a tight and neat joint will be formed.

The screw-threads cut, as described, upon the tenons and in the mortises will, by. reaflange f, form of themselves a steady hold or bearing surface, which acts as a stop consequent upon reversal, as before set forth, and the facility (described) with which the cutter-head E may be packed up to suit tenons of various diameters is an advantage not obtainable by reversible cylinders and other screw-cutting arrangements of the kind.

I do not claim of themselves only reversible cutter-heads, as such or equivalent arrangements have long been used, such as reversible cylinders and similar devices; but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Constructing the reversible cutter-heads E J. PARSONS OWEN.

Vitnesses:

WM. P. ELLIOT, WM. M. SMITH. 

